World Football Challenge Getting Facelift?

For the last couple of summers, fans across the country have been treated to a mini tournament called the World Football Challenge.

It looks as though the WFC is going to undergo another facelift this summer however. SI.com’s Grant Wahl is reporting that the tournament is set to become the International Champions Cup.

The World Football Challenge is now morphing into the International Champions Cup. After several years of one-off summer exhibitions, it will be a change of pace to see top teams in a tournament in which the winner takes home a trophy. In an additional wrinkle, one of this year’s group games will take place in Europe.

The lone MLS representative this year will be the LA Galaxy. Real Madrid and Juventus are two of the other teams that are set to be apart of this eight-team tournament. The final of the tournament will be held at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium.

There will be two groups of four — Eastern and Western groups. The tournament, which has a major title sponsor and a TV deal, will be officially announced on Tuesday in Miami, with figures from several of the participating clubs on hand.

From the sounds of everything we’ll see MLS sides go back to the one-off friendlies instead of the WFC-style series of games that we’ve seen them play over the years. More than likely teams will hosts other clubs this summer, rather than the big guys of Europe. We already know that Manchester City and Chelsea are playing some games this summer in the States, and I’d imagine that is just the beginning of it.